Not your typical "Can't boot on USB" issue

[Tazman]

Hi everyone, I'm completely new to TrueNAS and really excited to get a home server.

But, the old computer I want to use for my server won't boot on the USB installer I made with RUFUS. Before you ask, Yes I set the BIOS to legacy mode and changed the priority of bootable devices. The USB stick I am using is working on a different Desktop, and my computer will boot on my Windows Installer USB stick. I even tried with Ubuntu and it booted normally.

I'm using an old, but functioning desktop I had laying around, the BIOS has a ton of settings, but it seems I haven't found the right one to modify in order to make this work... Here is the on the hardware, I'm copying what's on the BIOS System info page:

System Information

Manufacturer: Procys​

Product Name: DQ965GFEKR​

Version: 602​

Desktop Board Information

Manufacturer: Intel Corp​

Product Name: DQ965GF​

Version: AAD41676-602​

RAM

2x: 2GB​

Mushkin 991558​

​

Hard drives (All desktop "grade") No judgment please, I'm doing this on a budget. Will upgrade in the future when needed.

Booting USB stick: Nexxtech 32 GB​

4TB WD Blue​

WD40EZRZ - 19GXCBO​

1TB Seagate​

Barracuda 7200.12 ST31000524AS​

160GB Seagate (to be used for install)(Currently has Windows installed on it)​

Barracuda 7200.10, ST3160815AS​

1TB Seagate​

ST1000DM003​

500GB Western Digital​

WD5000AAJS - 22YFA0​

Network Card

Whatever is on the motherboard (not Wi-Fi), no extra Graphics or Network card.​

It's not connected to the internet right now, but we're not there yet...​

What I tried so far:
Default BIOS settings: unsurprisingly, didn't work
Unplug all the hard drives and try to boot on all USB Ports: No luck...
ATA/IDE Mode : Legacy / Native
S.M.A.R.T. : Disable / Enable
USB Legacy : Disable / Enable
USB Boot : Disable / Enable
Core Multiplexing Technology : Disable / Enable
XD Technology : Disable / Enable

I tried a combination of those settings but there are more...

Thank you for your help

 

[Alecmascot]

DQ965GF

My DQ965GF motherboard would not boot the Scale install stick. It booted Core just fine.
I sold it.

 

[Tazman]

I'm trying to install TrueNAS CORE 12.0-U8. I haven't tried older versions.

 

[Alecmascot]

What msg do you get when it fails ?
Latest bios is CO96510J.86A.6080

 

[Redcoat]

RAM
2x: 2GBMushkin 991558

TrueNAS today is 16GB minumum ram recommended...

 

[sretalla]

Yikes! that board is saying USB2 is "high speed", supports only DDR2 RAM (and maybe only 8GB of it at most)... it's from 2006 and unlikely to support the FreeBSD bootloader, so at best (assuming you want to upgrade the RAM to 8GB), you could expect to run FreeNAS 11.1 (or maybe TrueNAS SCALE?, since it uses GRUB).

To be honest, I think you've selected the wrong hardware on a number of levels and your experience with this set of products is likely to be a bad one (or at very least difficult).

Perhaps you'll have a better chance of making the fork of an older version of FreeNAS (originally NAS4Free, but now called XigmaNAS) work due to its less demanding requirements on the system. It's much tougher to figure out and isn't as well documented as TrueNAS, but it's likely to be a better match for your hardware if you don't have other options.

 

[Tazman]

Yikes! that board is saying USB2 is "high speed", supports only DDR2 RAM (and maybe only 8GB of it at most)... it's from 2006 and unlikely to support the FreeBSD bootloader, so at best (assuming you want to upgrade the RAM to 8GB), you could expect to run FreeNAS 11.1 (or maybe TrueNAS SCALE?, since it uses GRUB).

To be honest, I think you've selected the wrong hardware on a number of levels and your experience with this set of products is likely to be a bad one (or at very least difficult).

Perhaps you'll have a better chance of making the fork of an older version of FreeNAS (originally NAS4Free, but now called XigmaNAS) work due to its less demanding requirements on the system. It's much tougher to figure out and isn't as well documented as TrueNAS, but it's likely to be a better match for your hardware if you don't have other options.

I think we're onto something here with the Free BSD bootloader. It doesn't show any signs of understanding what's on the USB stick. It just goes to the next drive to boot the old Windows version.

I will try to install FreeNAS 11.3 and see if that potato will cooperate. I figured I'd have to go with an older version, but had no clue which one to try or even search for...

Thanks a lot for your help

 

[sretalla]

I will try to install FreeNAS 11.3 and see if that potato will cooperate

I think the bootloader change was between 11.1 and 11.2, so 11.3 won't help you if that's it.

 

[Tazman]

Perfect, I'll try with 11.1

Thanks again

 

[Tazman]

I'm done trying with this potato... Found a local cheap motherboard for 80CAD$.
GA-P55M-UD2 with i7 860 2.8Ghz CPU and 16GB DDR3 RAM

 

[sretalla]

GA-P55M-UD2 with i7 860 2.8Ghz CPU and 16GB DDR3 RAM

Still not perfectly ideal, but much more likely to run than the last one.